Leo Francis O'Farrell

Leo Francis O’Farrell was born on May 23, 1927, to John and Mary (Molly nee Lawton) O’Farrell of Cork City Ireland and Elmhurst, Long Island New York. Leo was the middle child of three boys, John St. David and Edward Joseph, both deceased.  Leo died on June 11, 2024.

Leo’s mother pursued a singing career for Leo, starting at the age of 4, when he sang a solo at the Brooklyn Academy of Music. While attending St. Bartholomew's Parochial school in Elmhurst, Leo auditioned and was accepted into the Paulist Choir, a world-renowned men’s and boy’s choral group, located at St. Paul the Apostle Roman Catholic parish in New York City. On Sundays following Gregorian chant at 11:00 am mass, a select group of choristers – Leo included – would trek to the NBC studios on 5th Ave and perform on “The Catholic Hour” that featured Monsignor Fulton J. Sheen.

Leo attended LaSalle Academy in Manhattan and was a member of the Forensic Club for many years.

Leo was drafted into the United States Army in February of 1945 and served his country honorably in the Infantry and Transportation Corps until his discharge in March 1947.

While in the Army, he met his wife- to-be. Kathleen Vivian Kelly, who died in 2008, was a volunteer at The Albans Club NCCS (USO) Canteen on Long Island. They were married for 61 years.

Following his military service, Leo secured a position with the Allen B. DuMont Labs at their broadcast facilities. The Labs operated WABD-Channel 5 with studios in the John Wanamaker retail store in lower Manhattan. It was the beginning of a long, wonderful career in the television broadcast industry.  While at WABD, he joined the engineering department and worked his way up to becoming a camera operator. While there he was chosen to work on the Jackie Gleason “Honeymooners” series. Those taped video programs produced in 1956 are still viewed today.  In his free time, he volunteered with the Jericho Fire Department.

During his career in television, he worked for WTOP-TV (CBS) in Washington D.C. and produced the first television program to be broadcast from the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts. Moving from Washington D.C. to Chicago, he was a television director at WMAQ (NBC) for two decades. He also was a Lector at St. Michael the Apostle in Old Town, Chicago.

He retired from television in 1986 and moved to St. Augustine, FL where he and Kathleen enjoyed traveling in their RV and boating on the St. John’s River. While living in St. Augustine, he and Kathleen were pivotal in creating an off-leash dog park, the “First Paw Paw Park” in St. John’s County.  Their travels took them to Arizona, where in 2004 they settled at the SKP RV Park in Benson Arizona.  There, Leo was devoted to the “Benson Clean and Beautiful” program and worked to restore the murals found throughout the city, commemorating the origin and history of the town. While in Benson, two years after Kathleen died, he met a fellow RV’r Carol Kemp, a widow, “in the spice aisle” of Safeway. They lived together in Benson, AZ and Montrose CO, enjoying new friends and experiences. They loved international travel, going so far as Ireland and Australia. One trip to Alaska in their RV was particularly special, as they both enjoyed fishing for halibut, catching their limit.

Leo is survived by his children David (Sue) and Eileen, and his grandchildren Nora (Javier), Bennett (Ellen) and Liliana, as well as nieces, nephews, grandnieces and grandnephews. May his memory be a blessing to us all.

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